Its creator, Outlyer Technologies, says it works on any browser without a special player, and in any IAB ad format.

An LA-based virtual reality software development company is today announcing a new ad format that it says is the “first fully interactive 360-degree rich media ad technology” with a virtual reality mode.

What this means is that the new Advrtas ad platform, created with a proprietary and patent-pending Panamorphic technology, acts somewhat like a 360-degree video on a single screen like mobile or desktop, except that it is actually an explorable generated environment with interactive hotspots.

It is not 360-degree video, Outlyer Technologies CEO and founder Robert Bruza pointed out, although it can use video as an element. It is a generated visual environment than can also include 3-D or 2-D computer-generated elements, photos or graphics. Like an online game, it employs WebGL and HTML5, but for ads.

Clicking on a hotspot can bring up anything, Bruza told me, even info from a web page so that an e-commerce purchase can take place inside the ad.

Additionally, a Advrtas ad can have a virtual reality icon on the screen. Clicking on the icon splits the ad into two screens that can be viewed as a stereoscopic VR environment on a cardboard VR/smartphone viewer like Google’s.

The ads do not require a special player but can be viewed in any browser. The format can also discern motion sensors on a smartphone, so a user can move around the ad by moving the phone. Some other mobile ad creators, like Adtile, are similarly employing on-phone sensors for ads.

As examples of possible ads, the company suggested a view of the entire Las Vegas strip (see image at top of this page), where users could click into hotel lobbies, rooms or restaurants to look around and then make reservations inside the ad. Similarly, grocery shoppers could navigate a virtual store, check out products on the aisles and select ones to be delivered.

Bruza said that the Advrtas format can fit into any ad type from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), even banners, and can be displayed anywhere online or in an app. A user could look through a banner shape and move around the larger space “behind” the banner frame, and then click on a hotspot to enlarge the screen.

The ad format, which includes analytics, is first being offered through Outlyer, which will create the ads for clients. Bruza said Outlyer is now in discussion with half a dozen unnamed brands and that, by the fall, his company expects to launch a cloud-based platform with tools.

About The Author

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.